FORT BENNING, Ga., (April 15, 2015) -- The Sexual Harassment and Assault Prevention team kicked off Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month April 7 in the banquet room of McGinnis-Wickam Hall, but one leader made sure to point out the cause is about more than just a month.
"We're here to talk about a month, but when I look at this, it is not about a month, this is one of those always tasks," said Maj. Gen. Scott Miller, Maneuver Center of Excellence commanding general. "... April can maybe raise our awareness, but this has to be all the time."
The theme of this year's SAAPM is "Know your part, Do your part!"
Those in attendance listened to Spc. Jarett Wright, a male sexual assault survivor, in a recorded recount of sexual assault.
"You might be saving life by simply going forward and trying to put a stop to (an assault)," he said. "I understand you think these guys are your friends and your buddies in your unit, but they're not. They are not the qualities that we want in an Army Soldier."
In Wright's presentation, the crowd was shown the consequences of the assault he sustained and his life following the occurrence.
"One of the things about Spc. Wright's case that is unique to Fort Benning is a lot of the things that we talk about at the start - it starts with horseplay, it starts with pranks, it starts with hazing," said Master Sgt. Shaylon Tarver, MCoE Sexual Assault Response coordinator.
Through Wright's narrations of the assault, the attendees' eyes were opened to the reality of sexual assault among its own Soldiers.
As a result of Wright's trauma, he began smoking and became suicidal, as well as left the Army where he felt disrespected and unsafe - to join the National Guard, where he could continue to serve in a new environment.
"We should be treating each other as professionals," Wright said.
Miller said Wright's specific hazing incident, which turned into sexual assault and then led to a lack of command responsibility, is intolerable.
"What I tell people is we're on a positive trend when it is zero," Miller said. "Every time we have this happening within our Army, it is a leadership failure."
Miller said SHARP is more than PowerPoint presentations and speeches; it is about leadership all the time in the ranks.
"When that trust level is there, and they look up and trust the chain of command, that is when we've got it right," he said. "The education has got to be real, it has got to be felt and it's got to be a place where we start driving it down to zero."
Additional events during SAAPM 2015 include a poetry slam from 2-4 p.m. April 18 at Harmony Church, an opportunity for Soldiers to earn their SHARP tab from 9 a.m.-noon April 28 at the 75th Ranger Regiment obstacle course and a golf scramble from 7 a.m.-noon April 30 at the Fort Benning golf course. There will also be donation boxes throughout post through the end of the month.
"Our goal today is to empower survivors to speak up and no longer suffer in silence," Tarver said.
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